To some readers, this may appear to be coming out of nowhere, but just bear with me!
I don’t think it’s right to suggest that for one person to have their voice heard, another person must not have their voice heard. For example, when Ren’s ever-endearing blog trolls trot out the tired old “Yeah Ren your blog is great and all, but what about the sex workers who don’t love their jobs like you do? Why aren’t we hearing from them?” - everyone in response seems to agree that yes, we should be hearing from them, but that does not mean Ren needs to shut up. Her voice matters just as much as theirs, and her experience is just as real and valid as theirs.
Obviously, there is always the issue of what is appropriate at a particular time or place. You probably don’t want to break the news of your recent engagement at a funeral, for example. But just because I don’t want you flapping your lips in my living room doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t flap ‘em all night long in your own.
With regard to accomplishments in general, I also get a sense that all too often, we eat our own. This is why I’ve got the following quote from Octogalore in my ever-growing header quotes rotation: “We need to be able to feel good about certain achievements without falling on our swords every five seconds.” It really resonates with me.
I’ve noticed this behavior in a few organizations I’ve volunteered with, and it’s gotten to the point where I’m almost ready to bow out completely. I wonder, if someone in my “inner circle” (read: blogroll) of feminist blogging buddies got a book deal, would everyone else turn on her? Talk about how yeah that’s great, but such-and-such other person could’ve written a “better” book? Or would that only happen if the person was perceived to be white, middle class, or otherwise relatively privileged? Is it suddenly okay to draw generalizations about the lives of some people you know online, but not others? To my mind, the power of blogging lies in the idea that everyone is an individual with a unique life experience and a story to tell. And no, of course that story is not going to be totally fascinating and compelling to everyone, but it still matters in the sense that anyone’s story matters.
And, finally, I’ve never been one to enjoy wallowing. Sure, some wallowing is necessary and even cathartic from time to time; but then you identify problem areas, brainstorm possible solutions, and move forward. While it sucks that the bloggers getting book deals don’t represent a wider segment of the whole, that’s the reality right now, so what can we do to change it? We can do things like write letters to feminist- and blogger-friendly publishing companies, suggesting bloggers whose writing they might be interested in (and might not know about); we can make use of self-publishing services such as Lulu.com and use the metrics of sales from those efforts as part of a pitch to an established publishing company; and I’m sure we can brainstorm tons of other ideas that are constructive and don’t rely on tearing one person down in order to lift another up.
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21 Responses to "Not just about book deals"
I wish everyone who wanted one could get a book deal.
Me too! But also, it’s not enough to just want one. There’s gotta be some proactiveness involved too.
Oh. Hey. Hi there. i don’t know why on earth everyone wants a book deal because, even if you get it published by, say, South End, how the hell many books do you think the typical author sells?
Try: 5000
woo!
and seriously, thee isn’t a soul out there i’ve *ever* read who writes so well that I think their works merits wider attention by virtue of writing skill (not necess. message — but then, 5k is hardly much of a message, particularly since, oh hey, how many of them actually read the thing)
I’m so sick of learning that people blogging are just looking for book deals. thoroughly sick of it. i’m going to ban from my reading tlist anyone who is trying to get a book deal. ha ha
Well, I’m not looking for a book deal! :)
Here’s the thing that’s really odd to me. Why do so many bloggers still rely on the old media world as a way to “prove” their creds? The whole point of new media is that it tears down those arbitrary barriers to entry. Seriously, if you think you need a book to prove you’ve “made it,” then I don’t know what to tell you other than, maybe a little re-evaluation is in order.
screw book deals, blogs and pod casting, the way of the future!
yeah that too!
i mean, i realize it doesn’t make sense, what i said. came out of left field.
and i have no idea who/what you’re talking about, what feminist blogger has a book deal? i have no clue.
but if people are now trashing her because she does and bleating that some other blogger ought to be the one published, why they hell don’t they put together a proposal and get a book deal.
the reason i say that is: they don’t fall in your fucking lap. you have to submit proposals. i really think that a lot of people are under the impression that they do fall in your lap and you don’t have to try.
and i think they think that b/c they are under the mistaken impression that 1. it’s somehow more glorious and important and bespeaks you talent if you are discovered; 2. that people are “discovered” like the actress discovered at a soda fountain; 3. that you shouldn’t advertise your wares/skills, etc. that somehow doing so is… unladlylike or shows one to be undeserving or is somehow antithetical to true merit/talent/whatev
horse shittery
woo. a lotta hoo ha andf i have no idea what is going on in bloglandia, who’s complaining, who’s jealous, who’s attacked, etc.
so, who IS upset and who is the someone who has book deal?
I would have no idea about how to GET a book deal in the first place. I don’t have the connections. I have no clue.
I think the criticisms you refer to, are primarily of the system that stacks the deck, in just this way. Unfortunately, it all gets acted out on individuals.
When someone says “Get your own book deal,” we want to say, okay, where? How? Could you share what you know about this process, to help other women? And they don’t. It’s like HEATHERS (insert Shannen Doherty voice here): Are you IN or are you OUT? And the INsiders aren’t too eager to share what they know.
And who are the INsiders, in this case? White women, young women, women of a certain class, appearance, education…
You can see the problem, then.
I think Ren, Amber, others, are very much about sharing what they know, establishing connections and networking with all kinds of women. But some women (you know who I mean) have not been, or have only networked with women like themselves. For example, I am rarely (if ever) blogrolled by any of the people in question, even when I have carefully included them. They don’t NEED to include me, is the message I get. I’m not important. And I hear that same complaint, over and over. When this complaint comes from non-white people, well, what can we surmise about that?
That ain’t the way, know what I mean?
Well, but my thing is, what’re you going to DO about it? Acknowledging that the deck is stacked a certain way is one thing. Acknowledging existing inequities is one thing. But… THEN what? Do you just sit around and gripe about how unfair it all is and how you have it so much harder than you perceive other people have it? Or do you get on your feet and do something proactive to affect change?
And as for sharing info about how to get a book deal, I’m not sure why the people who WANT one assume others of us know all the intricacies of how to get one. And I could pretty easily pull that schtick about, “I’m not here to do your homework for you. Do your due diligence.” But maybe that’s okay in some cases and not others, is the message I’m seeing.
I also see a lot of assumptions made about the “class” of certain women. This pisses me off because I know people have made such assumptions about ME, but the fact of the matter is, most of these people don’t know shit about me, and it’s pretty damn presumptuous to go around acting like you know all about a person’s background and experiences.
No one deserves a book deal. No one deserves to get blogrolled. If you do get a book deal or get blogrolled by A-listers, great; but if not, you know what, maybe keep doing your own thing and define success on your own terms. Or turn their game on its head. It can be done. No, it won’t be easy, but change rarely is.
Honestly, I think there’s a lot that goes on when someone get recognition from a wider audience, i.e. a book that will show up in retail stores.
Sometimes the complaint is that one person got recognition when others, more worthy in the eyes of the person complaining* did not. This is actually a fairly standard complaint in critiques of mainstream media that ties into why main characters tend to be male, female characters don’t tend to interact with each other unless talking about men, and shows in diverse cities look like someone put a “whites only” sign over that neighborhood for the duration of filming. And personally, I think it is a valid critique - examining why those who get the most attention, complexity, and money all have similar physical characteristics is useful for educating people and for sussing out the complexities within our own innner expectations for entertainment.
None of the critiques mean, of course, that the white males who seem to always find these lead roles are bad people, bad actors, or didn’t work hard to get that lead role. Some of them may be any of the aforementioned, but the fact that networks are more likely to fund shows with male leads is out of their hands. Likewise, the critique of one blogger over another getting a book deal can easily be taken less as a critique of that person and more as a critique of the system. However, it is made more complicated by the existence of those people who are a part of and benefitted from the system being present as they tend not to be in critiques of other forms of media.
Sometimes the complaint is that there is misrepresentation going on. For example, something claiming to speak to all religious people that was written by, and for, Quaker Christians, or something claiming to be for all Vegans that included honey and eggs. Sometimes the difficulty of defining “feminism” comes into play here - some peolpe broaden it to include anyone who even vaguely hints they want something which is considered equality between men and women, while others narrow it down, excluding those with jobs, interests, and even physical characteristics which they don’t think are compatable with feminism. In any case, people who believe they belong to a certain class of people often don’t take it when when they are informed - whether overtly or covertly - they don’t actually belong in a given group. So called “identity politics” often fall down here.
And sometimes the complaint is in response to a real or perceived example of bigotry. Humans, as a general group, don’t tend to do well with responding to and valuing anothers experience as much as our own, so it can often be difficult to acknowledge if there is any truth to a given critique or complaint, especially if said complaint contradicts our self-image or direct experience. Personally, I would hope those around me value me enough as an open person who wants to value people equally and suss out internalized bogotry so that I can be less of a sexist, racist, git, to let me know when they think something I did is wrong in some way. I don’t always take this news well - it’s are to take a critique well - but I consider taking critique from people seriously to be important enough to try and put aside my own insecurity and fears of not being valued or valuable if I don’t live up to some internal code of Perfect Liberal. Obviously, this is far easier in the abstract than in the actual, and even more obviously I am not all people, so it makes acertain amount of sense for people to own when they don’t want critique in a given area, say so, and moderate such critique out. There is no way, naturally, to stop people from critiquing one elsewhere, but one can control where one has control.
And sometimes people just want to piss in someone else’s cheerios because something nice happened to them. I worry, though, when I see people claiming it’s the last when, to me, it looks like one of the former three.
*complaining is not meant pejoratively.
1) Speaking personally, I did do something. I started blogging, since I felt women like me weren’t being adequately represented. I felt feminist/lefty history had been lost (and more is being lost all the time), so I jumped in with the little I know. (And I emphasize, I don’t know much, but it’s better than NO old lefty feminists AT ALL contributing!)
2) I’m not being presumptuous. I’m operating on simple facts: Can you offer any examples of very poor (as in AFDC recipients) or homeless women being published? I can’t. Do you think that’s an accident?
3) Certainly, I do measure success on my own terms. But you know, only a few months into blogging, I blogged about something I found on a black woman’s blog, and then *I* (not the black woman) got quoted on ALAS and several other blogs. It was jarred by that. Also, very ambivalent: I wanted the news story to get out there, in fact, it is crucial it gets out there. But why was *I* the one quoted? I included the original link. Why didn’t they go to the source and just link HER?
If -I- noticed that, WOC certainly did too. And that is only one example I can name. The invisibility of WOC bloggers is real. And that influences who gets book deals, who the A-list bloggers ARE in the first place, etc.
That is all I am saying here. In this environment (WOC invisibility), one (white, seemingly privileged) person getting chosen over others is like lighting a powder keg.
Just a note, I was using the generic “you” in my last comment.
More to come. Work beckons at the moment, though.
Several months back, Yolanda Carrington at The Primary Contradiction wrote an awesome post about racism. I was so impressed that I used my graphics skills (and the corporation’s resources) to put together a downloadable one-page PDF of the blog post that could be printed out and distributed. I think that’s the sort of product that can bridge the gap between book publishing and the blog world.
Blog carnivals are another great way to alert readers to good blogs by people who are currently not well known.
I think it would be cool to be able to produce a handy booklet that contained my favorite blog posts on a particular subject. In the printing field, we’re really not that far away from making it happen. Very close, but not there yet.
btw, i take that back about who’s writing talent deserves a wider audeience: twisty.
ha.
anyway, i have been reading bfp and ba, and i don’t recall seeing them complain, but then maybe the complaints are cryptic and i just didn’t take the time to dig deeper.
i just got done observing male leftists show their colors re: Ehrenreich’s work and it struck me as a lot of jealousy on the part of people who think of themselves as writers and were pissed that she got attention and that she got published and that she had it all and that became an excuse to trash what she’d written. Moreover, there was the repeated insistence that she’d done it for “self-aggrandizement” — “it” being try to live as if you were a low wage worker trying to make next month’s rent. she was under no illusion that she was actually doing so, just trying to convey an approximation and pointing out that, if it sucked for her, with a lot going for her, then what about those who don’t have it.
anyway, it burned my ass that people had the audacity to claim that somehow self-aggrandizement was the issue and not care and concern for the lives of those whom she’d written about. And worse, they said: she lied to people.
oh. yawn. wake me up if you think i might shit the bed.
so, you know, when i see someone with Ehrenreich’s quality and reach being trashed like that, I think: why should I reject it with Ehrenreich and allow it to happen to others — even if I don’t happen to share their politics.
no one knows how to get a book deal, Daisy. That’s why you ask around and go to the library and read books about how to get book deals.
but for those who have some little fantasy that they can pretend to be all about something else, when what they really want is to be “discovered” and get a gig by not actually workin’ it? fuck ‘em and the keyboard they wrote in on. it’s reproducing this myth that it’s all magic, it’s buying into this myth that it’s all magic. i don’t think it’s that no one wants to share the info, either.
when i was in grad school and struggling, i often struggled b/c, as the first person to go to college in my family, let alone grad school, i didn’t know jack about the process. the best advice i got about whether to go to cornell, syracuse, or binghamton university was to go to syracuse because it has a grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat football team.
so, my profs and mentors and advisers would see me juggling three adjunct jobs, a 1 hour commute, children, and a job mopping floors and commiserate…
years later, after i dropped out of the diss. writing process to get a ft job b/c i just couldn’t do it as a single mom, i learned about grad stud loans. had i known, I wouldn’t have been juggling all those jobs. I wouldn’t have had to drop out.
I asked some folks, “Why didn’t they tell me? why did my profs, advisors, etc. tell me about the loans. Why didn’t my classmates?”
It was pointed out to me that they simply assumed that, like them, I had no reason not to know. They figured I must know, just as they did, and that I was already getting loans and even then, I couldn’t make it.
That’s how institutionalized classism (for lack of a better word) works. People *doing the **right** thing* is how oppression works, as Iris Marion Young and a slew of other feminist and race justice workers and writers have pointed out.
it’s not when people are shitting all over you purposefully, that oppression is manifesting itself in the more tragic ways. it sucks, but you can put your finger on it and name it a lot more readily. What we have to spend a lot more of time understanding is how it is that when people are doing what they think is the right thing from their social location — in my case, respecting my autonomy and intelligence and not wanting to pry into my financial situation and embarrass me — then even as well-intentioned as those actions and words might be, they end up reproducing oppression.
and what i see in these conversations is that everyone pays lip service to that “it’s not about good intentions” stuff, but never really does. In that sense, I agree with you Daisy. Instead, the focus is on the individual and comes off as a critique individuals and their behavior, as if it’s intentional and malicious.
finally, i don’t happen to think it will change a damn thing if poor women get book deals or women of color get book deals or anything else. from my reading about the history of successful social movements, it’s about building social networks, communities, and alternative institutions and doing so on a one-to-one, small group to small group basis, in which you influence and change people’s consciousness in far more intimate settings.
Agit prop in the form of books can assist in that process but srsly? when was the last time a book was so influential it ignited much of anything? Sheeit.
* also, as for self-aggrandizement: I say, three cheers for it! The idea that I or anyone else is supposed sacrifice and give up for the good of da people burns my ass something wicked. If I went to the trouble towrite a book, I’d *better* be getting blown after every book reading.
and, btw, if i come off as an ass, it’s because i really don’t take blogging for social justice seriously any more. I didn’t think it was worthwhile when I started, I got caught up with arguments that it could be used for social change, and started thinking the folks making the argument might have a point.
my observation is that I was right the first time around: blogging, etc. is useless to social change and so my energies are now directed to working, again, in my community where i build something with people and we have immediate impact on the world around us, which sustains us in important ways.
this is why i no longer blog. my observations of bloglandia completely turned me off from it as anything other than a forum for working precisely *against* our common goals because it is based on a competitive individualism that doesn’t foster collective social movement sensibilities and, instead, fosters charismatic leadership of the sort that nourishes reactionary radical movements. (as in my critique of rad feminism. which is why the twisty comment was meant as irony. HA)
WORD.
I get SO sick of this “oh don’t do it for the money, whatever you do!!!” bullshit.
I think blogging for social change can be effective, because I don’t see blogging as something separate from “working in my community.” To me, blogging is part of what it means to work in my community.
hell, screw money :) do it for blow jobs. :)
as for blogging and social change: yeah, it’s an unpopular opinion and my views are probably offensive, but I’m into being an offensive bitch at the moment. ha.
Amber, I agree with what you are saying. I actually don’t think you and Daisy, Deoridhe and various other commenting here disagree on the fundamentals.
Certainly, poor women and WOC (especially where those intersect) face unfair disadvantages in getting book deals and other trophies in which the “who you know” factors in as much (or more) as the “what you know” and the “how effectively you can communicate it to the people to whom it’s most effective to communicate it.”
That said, leveling any negativity at someone like JV for aggressively seeking to get her voice heard and working a commercial path (you know my views on shame being inflicted on women for doing that) seems inappropriate. It’s certainly fair to provide legit critiques of the book’s substance. But it’s insincere to critique its existence, when we all know there are less deserving books out there on different topics. By doing that, we’re saying that books about feminism should be more harshly weeded than books on other topics.
Daisy: “Can you offer any examples of very poor (as in AFDC recipients) or homeless women being published? I can’t.”
Daisy, this is a softball: JK Rowling was a welfare mom, living in a rat-infested room. Of course you’re right, though, the playing field is by no means level. But I agree with Amber — the focus should be on how we create paths for women with fewer starting advantages to showcase writing and other abilities.
In all professions there are those at the top who don’t seem to be anything special. I’m sure we can point to some actors and pop stars like that. I know lawyers like that — the guy with the $10M practice who’s secretly not all that smart but got connected with some good clients who referred other good clients and suddenly he’s an all-star, with firms who rejected him out of law school because of his mediocre school and grades suddenly drooling all over him. I would bet most of us have worked for bosses whose jobs we could do standing on our heads.
Ultimately, though, who ever got promoted (or anything else) for pointing this out? Not for pointing it out in the context of “how do we fix this.” But for pointing it out, period. I’d bet nobody. And most of us have stopped trying. But suddenly, when it’s feminism, it becomes a zero sum game where we need to carefully apportion merit. What does this solve, exactly?
Anger is good and righteous, but it has to lead to action to be meaningful. And the action should take the place of putting ourselves or worthy representatives forward, not knocking others who’ve put themselves forward even if we feel they may not be the worthiest. When a feminist market gets bigger, it gets bigger for everyone. And then it’s up to those of us who feel there are big gaps to get off our asses and fill them.
BL: ” i don’t happen to think it will change a damn thing if poor women get book deals or women of color get book deals or anything else”
Not sure I agree with this. The book deals in themselves, maybe you’re right. But a book deal can be a platform. Let’s say BA gets a book deal. OK, so in and of itself, maybe that doesn’t create major change. But then let’s say one of her buddies who lives in, say, an area where there are a lot of literary agents, and may know of one or two of them, were to connect her up with them and she gets some book tours and visibility and a platform to share her ideas more widely than the book alone. Maybe she gets a second book deal, and is invited to speak at high schools and colleges. So that does change a damn thing, because communication to young people from someone with whom they can identify can change a whole lot.
Sure, this may not all flow from a book contract. But, we can’t prove that it wouldn’t.
I don’t think it’s right to suggest that for one person to have their voice heard, another person must not have their voice heard.
Neither do I, implicitly or explicitly. Glad we agree.
octagalore:
what i’d written was this:
my point was: we already know what works. books had little to do with the civil rights movement. little do do with union struggles or workers’ movements. no one wrote a book about the need for an 8 hours day. phamplets. street theater (see russia agit prop for how they taught people about class struggle). working with people on a local level to get them what they needed (rent strikes, etc.) of the kind that the communist party did back in the 20s-30s. they built a movement and changed the world in ways that most of us now take for granted.
so, sure, maybe a book deal might matter to someone in college who hears the speaker. it ends up mattering to the middle class and up, as well as those striving to be. but the person working at a turkey gutting factory or sitting in the offices upstairs from where i’m sitting now, pushing paper around in the fraud unit or payroll, it won’t make much of a difference. now, if said author used her influence to organize, yeah i think it would matter to poor/ working poor people. (it’s not that they don’t read. one of my bits of local activism involves a book reading group at work, when a woman noticed me reading Is Bill Cosby Right? Or has the black middle class gone Crazy.)
and for that matter, really. there are a number of books out there that deal with the issues that have been concerning a section of the feminist bloglandia. who’s read them — the ones about feminism and race and change among whites?
is there a feminist reading group where white feminists are, together, reading the words about feminism and racism that are intended to get them to see racists institutions within their own movement?
i’ll start it by gum!
but what i notice is that people don’t even read each other particularly carefully. i have little hope that people are going to read a book — and read it with care. blogs are about zip zip zip wheeeee. amber linked to some local rag on local blogs once, where someone said he had ADD which makes for an ideal blogger — not to mention blog reader. I had to laff — and agree! :)
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